Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:55 pm
The worst fears of Republicans came true as Hillary Clinton took apart Donald Trump in less than a minute after he lobbed a childish insult at the Democratic frontrunner.
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Transcript via ABC’s This Week:
TRUMP: — they control Crooked Hillary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s the new nickname, Crooked Hillary.
Your response?
CLINTON: I don’t respond to Donald Trump and his string of insults, uh, about me. I can take care of myself. I look forward to running against him if he turns out to be the Republican nominee if I am the Democratic nominee.
What I’m concerned about is how he goes after everybody else. He goes after women. He goes after Muslims. He goes after immigrants. He goes after people with disabilities. He is hurting our unity at home. Uh, he is undermining the values that we stand for in New York and across America. And he’s hurting us around the world.
He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I really could care less.
I’m going to stay focused on the issues, because there are stark differences between where I think our country needs to be headed and where he would turn us back and undermine the progress that we’ve been making.
So, when I talk about jobs, when I talk about climate change, when I talk about equal pay, when I talk about a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions and so much else, I know that he doesn’t believe any of that and that in this campaign he wants to set Americans against each other and I’m not going to stand for it.
Clinton’s answer is what Republicans have always been afraid of. The GOP’s worst 2016 fear was that they will nominate an unqualified candidate, or an extremist, and get steamrolled by Hillary Clinton. Republicans have spent years trying to stop Hillary Clinton from running for president for a reason. Donald Trump came up with another silly nickname for a potential election opponent, and Hillary Clinton responded with a blistering attacking that will cost Trump millions of votes in November in less than a minute.
Hillary Clinton gets it. Donald Trump’s insult gimmick only works if the other person plays along. If Clinton doesn’t respond with insults, Trump’s tabloid style issueless campaign dies on the vine, and Trump sounds like a crazy man talking nonsense to himself off in the corner.
If Trump is the Republican nominee, he will be completely outmatched by Clinton. If Ted Cruz is the nominee, he will be outmatched by Clinton. If John Kasich is the nominee, the Hobbit Governor will be a speed bump for Clinton. Forget the hypothetical general election match-up polls that mean nothing in April, when it comes to actual campaigning, and dealing with the attacks that Republicans are going to throw at Democrats in the fall, Hillary Clinton is already prepared.
Donald Trump sounds like a child compared to Hillary Clinton, and if Republicans put Trump out there as their nominee, he is going to get eaten alive by Democrats in the fall.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
